WYTU-LD
WYTU-LD, virtual channel 63 (UHF digital channel 17), is a Telemundo-affiliated television station licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, it is a sister station to CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (channel 58), MeTV owned-and-operated station WBME-CD (channel 41) and Racine-licensed independent station WMLW-TV (channel 49). All four stations share studios on South 60th Street in Milwaukee (near West Allis); WYTU's transmitter is located in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park (next to the transmitter belonging to ABC affiliate WISN-TV, channel 12). Even though WYTU has a digital signal of its own, the low-powered broadcasting radius does not reach all of southeastern Wisconsin. Therefore, the station can also be seen through a 16:9 widescreen standard definition simulcast on WDJT's fourth digital subchannel in order to reach the entire market. This relay signal can be seen on UHF channel 46.4 (or virtual channel 58.4 via PSIP) from the same Lincoln Park transmitter facility. WYTU is also relayed on WMYS-LD (digital channel 69.2) in South Bend, Indiana and WFBN-LD (channel 35) in Rockford, Illinois. The station airs all of Telemundo's schedule along with Spanish-language coverage of Sunday afternoon Milwaukee Brewers baseball home games, using camera positions shared with Fox Sports Wisconsin. WYTU is also available via Spectrum's systems throughout their entire state service area as far west as La Crosse and as far north as Wausau, making for a rare example of an intra-region superstation in the digital age. History The station has mostly been a feeder of the entire schedule of Univision and Telemundo through most of its history with minimal local programming. In 1999, Weigel dropped Univision in a compensation dispute and affiliated with Telemundo, and within the year, the station moved to UHF channel 63 from channel 46 as "W63CU", in order to accommodate WDJT's channel 46 digital signal and the company's move to one tower in Lincoln Park for all its operations. In mid-December 2003, the station took the lettered call sign "WYTU-LP" as it began to solicit local advertising from the growing Latino population in the Milwaukee area and Weigel began to push for extended cable coverage by including it in retransmission consent negotiations for WDJT. The station signed on its digital signal on UHF channel 17 on December 10, 2007. Unlike the channel 13 digital signal of WMLW (which receives interference from WZZM in Grand Rapids), WYTU-LD's digital signal reaches the southern portion of the adjacent Green Bay/Appleton DMA, and is somewhat unrestricted as WXMI, the former occupant of channel 17 in the Grand Rapids market, now broadcasts on digital channel 20, although that station's Muskegon translator W17DF-D also broadcasts on channel 17. As a result of carriage agreements by Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications for access to the WDJT signal and to provide network service to areas without a Telemundo affiliate, WYTU is carried on those cable providers in portions of both the Green Bay/Fox Cities and Madison markets. For Charter, it has an additional channel slot within each provider's "Latino tier" of Spanish language programming, and in this form, the WYTU-LD feed is used statewide to provide Telemundo service to areas such as Wausau, Eau Claire and La Crosse otherwise unserved by over-the-air Spanish language television. In January 2009, WYTU was added to sister station WBME's digital signal on digital subchannel 49.4, calls which changed on August 16, 2012 as part of the channel swap between WBME and WMLW to allow WMLW to launch full-power, high-definition operations. The station's analog signal on channel 63 did not broadcast the Telemundo Wisconsin schedule from June 12, 2009 onward, when Weigel decided to convert that signal to an enhanced nightlight service instead, carrying WDJT's CBS schedule for the benefit of those viewers who were not yet prepared for the digital transition for full-power stations. The special agreement to carry CBS in an analog form ended on January 1, 2010, and from then until 2011, WYTU-LP carried the MeTV lineup, while Telemundo Wisconsin remained a digital-only offering via WYTU's digital signal and WMLW-DT4. On February 11, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission cancelled WYTU's analog license. The station converted their low-power channel 17 digital signal into a 720p high-definition signal on July 25, 2012, in time for Telemundo's Spanish-language coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Following the Games, the station carried, for the first time in team history, Green Bay Packers preseason football with Spanish language play-by-play in full high definition on its designated digital signal. These broadcasts are simulcast in the Green Bay market over English-language MyNetworkTV affiliate WACY-TV (Channel 32). In summer 2014, the standard definition simulcast on WMLW-DT4 began to scale network content to standard-definition widescreen depending on Active Format Description codes sent out over the Telemundo network feed. On January 8, 2018, the full-power market-wide simulcast of WYTU moved to WDJT-DT4 due to WMLW's merge of their spectrum to the low-power WBME-CD. In addition, This TV (a network formerly owned by Weigel and now owned by Tribune Broadcasting), was moved to WYTU's second subchannel as part of the move and to manage bandwidth. Further extended coverage in South Bend and Rockford With the launch of WYTU's high-definition digital signal also came a further extension in the station's coverage area beyond the state of Wisconsin in markets where regular reception of Chicago's Telemundo owned-and-operated station WSNS-TV is not possible or signal exclusivity has not been claimed, both by Weigel sister stations. WYTU's signal also is carried by WMYS-LD in South Bend, Indiana, over the MyNetworkTV affiliate's DT2 subchannel, and in Rockford, Illinois, as the second signal of WFBN-LD, which had traditionally been an extended translator of Weigel flagship station WCIU-TV. Despite the extended signal into two other states, including one that does not border Wisconsin, the station continues to brand itself as "Telemundo Wisconsin". In 2015, WFBN had the Telemundo schedule moved from the first subchannel to the second subchannel to accommodate Weigel's TouchVision network, which left the air in mid-January 2016. After a transitional period where WFBN-LD1 carried a loop of the WCIU morning program You & Me This Morning, that signal currently serves as the Rockford outlet for Weigel's Heroes & Icons network. In 2017, WMYS-LD2 began to carry their WYTU simulcast in high definition. Category:Telemundo affiliated stations Category:Channel 63 Category:Milwaukee Category:Wisconsin Category:Weigel Broadcasting Category:Former Univision affiliates Category:Former CBS Affiliates Category:Former independent stations Category:1990 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1990 Category:UHF Category:Other Wisconsin Stations